“I was outside with my family and they were everywhere,” said WCCO Chief Meteorologist Chris Shaffer. “It felt like mosquitos biting but every time you look there was nothing there. The one time I caught one it looked like that, tiny, little,” he said.

So what are these bugs?

“This is a pretty unique year,” said Mike McLean, spokesman for the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. They treat rivers and streams for the culprit: Black flies, more commonly known as biting gnats or biting midges.

“We’ve got 14 different species of gnats in the Twin Cities and about four of them bite us,” said McLean.

“I’ve been bugged by gnats, these were like ninja gnats,” said Shaffer.

Only the females bite. They need the blood to have the energy to lay eggs. That happens in moving water, like streams and lakes.

“When they get nice and big, they emerge on an air bubble, and launch themselves out of the water,” said McLean. “They’re blood feeders just like mosquitos except not nearly as subtle. What they do is take a chunk out of the skin and feed off of the blood in the little hole they’ve made.”

According to McLean, the counts of biting gnats were fairly low all summer, because MMCD treated the rivers and streams. But the last treatment was in September and no one expected this kind of a warm spell in October.

“There’s a few bugs we didn’t get and it’s really taken off now. But it’s nothing a few really cold nights won’t take care of,” said McLean.

If they are all over your screens(like the photo shows) and you have hackberry trees in your yard, then they are most likely “jumping plant lice”. Nasty, but don’t bite, thankfully. We can’t open our windows or they get EVERYWHERE! The hackberry trees are going away this winter!!

Wrong Sue; They are obviously centromeos, they emmigrate in with the upper level jet stream and land in the green areas they see. Normally we don’t get them in MN because the jet stream is from the NE spectrum. Please do your research before spouting off.

They bite me and leave holes. I am allergic to the bite and it has an intense itch.
They love to be in my hair and the scabs take months to go away. What repels them? What heals the scabs, that itch so bad ? I live in the Western Suburbs and they are really awful. I bought entire net outfit, which helps but it is hot to wear over your head. Idea ?